Kemba Walker

[HornetJail]

He looked like a real PG to me in summer league for what its worth. He was creating a lot of looks and was obviously the leader. Wouldn't surprise me if he averaged 7-8 assists this season. He gets a lot of hate for being on the Bobcats despite being one of the few guys who showed up every night and played hard despite having a terrible coach that had quit on the team months before.

Unlikely. I've watched him enough to say that likely won't happen. Not this season, not ever. I'll be thrilled if he does, but it's not likely.

Honestly, right now I don't even care about his PG skill so much as I care about his scoring ability. In the long run, I expect him to become a rich man's Lou Williams. Not a true PG, but a top 6th man. I'm only worried about his shot. He shot 36% last season, which is horrible for anybody, and particularly horrible for a scoring guard. I expect him to take a leap forward this season (at least 40% hopefully). We brought him in to score, not to be a world-class facilitator.

I'm not thrilled with the move (I wanted us to move forward with DJA before he quit on us, can't say I blame him too much) but I'll take him for what he is: a scoring combo guard and I think he can be pretty good at that.

[samueldestroyer]

I call bust on this kid

[tsherkin]

I call bust on this kid

Wee bit early for that, of course.

[samueldestroyer]

I call bust on this kid

Wee bit early for that, of course.

Ok fine I predict that he will be a bust. He's a scoring point guard that has trouble getting his shot off and doesn't make his team-mates better.

[Rebuilding Year]

Baiting

[Bertrob]

Derailing

[Bertrob]

Kemba doesn't really seem like he has anything positive to offer a team except for scoring;and he was flat out TERRIBLE at it last year
So until he gets his offensive game on track hes worthless on the court

[tsherkin]

Ok fine I predict that he will be a bust. He's a scoring point guard that has trouble getting his shot off and doesn't make his team-mates better.

Right... but he was a rookie, and plenty of rookies have struggled very badly (as I said earlier, Lebron and Durant come to mind immediately as recent examples) but exploded later. He had very little talent to work with, so the low assists weren't a huge surprise and it was a compressed lock-out season, which afflicted skilled players with years and years of experience all across the league, so there's some level of consideration to be taken from those facts as well.

Plus, apart from Adam Morrison and his ilk, it's rarely a wise idea to call bust on a player in year one, even taking those other considerations aside. Lots of guys stumble as the size, athleticism and skill of the NBA comes as a pretty serious shock to the system compared to the college game, which is mostly crap by comparison and very different in terms of rules and such as well.

[flashstinson0]

The game is changing, he's not a PG, but neither is Rose,Westbrook,Jennings,Teague,etc....

Kemba may not have the athleticism of Rose and Westbrook, but he is freakishly quick and can handle the ball really well, he can create his own shot and shot for others, I say give him 2 more years before you start calling him a 6th man.

[tsherkin]

The game is changing, he's not a PG, but neither is Rose,Westbrook,Jennings,Teague,etc....

Those guys are all point guards; they may not all be visionary playmakers, but neither is that typically required.

But yeah, he needs a couple of years and a more supportive situation before we can really evaluate him all that well.

[flashstinson0]

The game is changing, he's not a PG, but neither is Rose,Westbrook,Jennings,Teague,etc....

Those guys are all point guards; they may not all be visionary playmakers, but neither is that typically required.

But yeah, he needs a couple of years and a more supportive situation before we can really evaluate him all that well.

All those guys are combo guards that play point......and Kemba is the same thing.

Funny thing is tho, Kemba in college averaged more assist than Rose, Westbrook, Teague.

This was only Kemba's first year, like I said wait 2 years and then check back on Kemba.

[KembaWalker]

pretty dumb to assume Kembas stats this season are any reasonable expectation for his future play when almost everyone else on the team had dramatic career lows in efficiency. kind of a simpleton way of looking at things but, whatever. im not gonna get trolled by tsherkin again lol. just a raptors homer still raging from a lost bet 3 years ago so he goes out of his way to trash anything bobcats

[Rebuilding Year]

Kemba wasn't just bad. He had the worst shooting season ever on the worst team ever.

[KembaWalker]

Kemba wasn't just bad. He had the worst shooting season ever on the worst team ever.

yet still almost finished in the top half of our team in efficiency..missed by less than 1%

[OneWhoKnocks]

He's got to work on his shot selection. He should aim for getting above 40% FG%

[HornetJail]

Kemba wasn't just bad. He had the worst shooting season ever on the worst team ever.

He had to bail out his hopeless teammates. When Gerald Henderson and Byron Mullens are your two best teammates, it's pretty fair to say that you'll have to bail your whole team out by chucking up bad shots and hoping they fall. The roster was built to be hopeless and it worked too well. Combine that with the fact Kemba was a rookie who played his first season without training camps, without summer league, without five months of working out with his team on a regular basis. Now combine all that with the fact that he lives and dies by shooting the ball, and we were stupid to expect much more out of him.

The fact he led our team in PER (14.9), didn't turn the ball over much, and stayed healthy (we had a mini-plague of injuries about 1/3 of the way through) was actually fairly impressive to me.

[Rebuilding Year]

I'm extremely skeptical because Kemba was supposed to be one of the most NBA-ready players of his class after 111 games under Calhoun.

Fortunately for him, there's nowhere to go but up. You have to expect improvement.

[dolphinatik]

we will see this season what he has worked on and if he will be able to contribute in this league. I think physically he is capable and he can learn to shoot better. If he has the right work ethic I think he can be solid for the bobcats. Having MKG will only help him there.

[advanced]

lol even for a coach that had quit so much he was letting his son coach for lulz (we actually thought it was because his son was a shoe-in for the job but obviously that was wrong) Kemba was a 15 PER starter minute player, making him at worst average (15 PER is average iirc). as a rookie in that situation thats a pretty impressive feat.

Should point out that he was given free reign to loft almost 12 FGA/g in 27 mpg and command over the ball, which necessarily inflates your PER, despite being a 46.4% TS, 96 ORTG, -0.2 OWS player.

He was the definition of a putrid waste of shots, but he was still permitted to toss up 15.4 FGA36... which helped out his PER despite the fact that he was obviously crap (as a rookie, in a tough situation, it must be said, and he's not the only player to suck at first and get better).

But yeah, maybe you call that one a "moral victory," but there's no denying that his PER was a product of his shooting volume and not reflective in any way, shape or form of positive impact. Noting first that it's not prior-informed, he was a -2.8/-1.3 RAPM player (offense/defense), and that the Cats were actually -2.1 points per 100 possessions on offense when he was on the floor, I don't think there's a ton to take away from PER... which is usually the case. PER serves as a decent filtration tool, allowing a quick perusal of rough player tiers, as long as you set good baselines for minutes and games played, but that's about all it does (especially since it admittedly all but ignores defense). That this is 2012 and people still fall back on PER for anything else is unfortunate, since it's flaws (and those of all TENDEX derivatives) are well-known and similarly well-documented.

bobcats were better off with Walker on the floor. dont pick and choose stats without showing the whole story

[SpeedyWindRose]

On a side note, what's with all these small, chucking PGs signing with Under Armor?

Baiting

Not even going to take the time to give a detailed response, because

1) you know you're wrong

2) you know exactly what you're doing: baiting. Reported.